Unfamiliar Country Life

I was raised outside of small towns and on country farms up north until I was a teenager. I remember playing in creeks and watching guppies and turtles swimming by. I liked collecting round pebbles from the dirt road. There were baby voles in the barn with their tiny pink blind bodies, and sometimes we would find and rescue a baby bird that had fallen from its nest. Chasing fireflies at night were magical as a kid, and as much fun as looking up at the stars.

Many days were spent outdoors playing tag, hide-n-seek, and just discovering all that nature had to offer. We would pick fruit from the trees, grapes from the vine, and look for nuts that had fallen to the ground.

What is unfamiliar to me is adults playing dominoes almost every night. Eating winter peas and cornbread. Feeding cats and dogs once a day and never petting them nor acknowledging them. Taking two-month-old kittens to a stranger's farm and letting them loose in the barn to catch mice. Riding on vehicles that they call side-by-side, or the gator. Basically, ATV vehicles to drive around a large garden or on your property, down to the mailbox at the end of the driveway, or race on it with your kids or grandkids aboard as if it were a go-kart.

Shooting at crows and turkeys because they are in your garden. Urinating in your yard since there is no one else around and it is easier than going inside to do it. Burning trash and rubbish on the ground due to the fact that there is no other pick-up for it besides the normal trash. Keeping your hens penned up in a cage off the ground as a result of dogs or snakes attacking and penetrating the wire to kill them.

Small children under the age of 3, playing with kittens and holding them by their necks or putting flea powder on them without supervision. Babies crawling on the ground getting bit by ants before their parents notice. Animals plagued by unrelenting fleas that no one cares enough to do anything about. They are concerned more about their machines such as tractors, lawn mowers, bush hogs, trailers and trucks than a living animal. Even the crops are more important!

Maybe times have changed, or perhaps different parts of the country have opposite or unnatural ways. I am not comfortable with any of these things, and I want your input. What do you think about this? Is it just me, or is something wrong with this picture?